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Managing Blame: An Experimental Test of the Effects of Political Accounts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Kathleen M. McGraw
Kathleen M. McGraw
Affiliation:
State University of New York, Stony Brook
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Abstract

Public officials are not passive bystanders in the electoral process. Rather, they actively try to shape or manage citizens' perceptions of events (particularly those involving negative outcomes) through explanations or accounts. I argue that consideration of citizens' understandings of political accountability and how these are shaped by public officials represent critical missing components of models of electoral behavior. The distinction between excuses and justifications provides a valuable conceptual framework for understanding the impact of political accounts on a variety of judgments and psychological processes. I examine satisfaction with various excuses and justifications and their impact on subsequent evaluations of the official.

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American Political Science Review , Volume 85 , Issue 4 , December 1991 , pp. 1133 - 1157
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1991

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